CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard's sinking popularity hit new depths on Tuesday with an opinion poll showing her ruling Labour Party would be swept from office if elections were held.
Gillard, in the job for barely a year, has been under siege from conservative rivals over her plans for new mining and carbon taxes opposed by many voters, and after a court blocked her plan to send asylum-seekers to Malaysia.
The embattled Gillard is now fending off media speculation of an eventual leadership challenge if she cannot turn around the minority government's popularity in coming months, despite fresh elections being still two years away.
Government ministers again rallied in support of their embattled leader on Tuesday after the latest opinion poll.
"There's no chance of us doing anything other than getting stuck in there behind Julia Gillard and putting in place these really hard reforms," Gillard's Treasurer and deputy, Wayne Swan, told Australian radio.
The closely watched Newspoll in The Australian newspaper found nearly 70 percent of respondents were unhappy with Gillard's performance, the worst rating of any prime minister since Labor's Paul Keating during the 1990s recession.
Opposition leader Tony Abbott now eclipses Gillard as preferred leader, by 57 percent to 24 percent, said the Newspoll, which was conducted last weekend just after a court struck down her policy of sending asylum seekers to Malaysia.
It also found votes overwhelmingly supported former prime minister Kevin Rudd over Gillard, with 57 percent support for Rudd to lead the Labour Party compared with 24 percent for Gillard, who toppled Rudd in a Labour Party coup in June 2010.
The government, struggling to counter criticism it has been unable to deliver on promised reforms, said on Tuesday it would introduce legislation for a carbon tax into parliament next week. The tax is deeply unpopular with voters, surveys show.
"Any attempt to delay debate on the legislation should be seen for what it is, just an attempt to once again block and be negative from the opposition," Labor's lower house leader, Transport Minister Anthony Albanese, told journalists.
Political commentators say the only comforting facts for Gillard are that another general election is not due until 2013 and that her one-seat government still retains solid support from independent and Green allies in parliament.
In addition, they say, Labour party powerbrokers are reluctant to replace her little more than a year after tearing down Rudd.
(Reporting by Rob Taylor and Mark Bendeich; Editing by)
